sweet lies. / skz hyunjin

[ 六 ]

/ third person.

"you're telling me this girl was super depressed yesterday?" seungmin whispers to felix as they looked at the girl who was happily drinking her strawberry milk and listening to music.

"yeah... she and her boyfriend had a bit of a fall out. total douche, to be honest. i thought i could never get her back to normal, but here she is. better than normal," felix says, furrowing his eyebrows as he looked at the girl. she didn't look troubled one bit and somehow, that made felix a bit suspicious. he unplugged the girl's earbud and spoke, "is he making you act this way?"

"huh?" the girl responds, turning the music off.

"why are you so happy today? are you bipolar or... this is so unlike you," felix says, scanning her with his eyes, trying to find the answers to his questions. "oh yeah! how did tutoring go?"

"it went really well," the girl hums, looking at hyunjin who was sitting alone at the other side of the room. "actually, he's really fun to talk to. you guys should befriend him, too! hey, hyunjin!"

hyunjin walked over to the group with a soft smile plastered on his lips. "hello."

"hi," seungmin and felix waved in sync.

as they began conversing over simple subjects such as singing and dancing and calculus, they hear a yell from the hallway. "suni! your ex and his new girlfriend are fighting about you!"

suni began to stand up when felix held her hand back in attempt to distract her from the issue. "suni, that has nothing to do with you anymore, okay? breakups aren't always made for makeups, sometimes when a relationship ends, it's time for you to wake up."

"i'm not planning on making up with him, i just want to see whats happening. the boy said that they were fighting about me," she said, following after their classmate with her friends trailing quickly behind her.

it seemed she was late to the fight, for the girl was crying on the floor and the boy was crying, rushing towards suni as soon as he saw her.

"suni, one or two?" hyunjin whispered, continuing to glare at the boy racing towards them.

"two, why?" the girl questioned and right after she said it, hyunjin stood in front of her with a smile on his face. suni couldn't see past hyunjin for he was too tall.

"suni, i'm really really sorry for how i treated you! i swear, just give me another chance! i was wrong!" she heard the familiar voice plead.

suni began to feel tears fall from her eyes. she didn't mind at this point for she was still trying to cope and she accepted that it wasn't going to be easy. seungmin noticed almost immediately, grabbing hold of her hand. "suni, are you okay? please don't cry."

the crowd of students moved to surround them and hyunjin quickly turned around to check on suni, allowing her ex to be able to see her and step closer. he grabbed her cheeks lightly, looking into her eyes with deep sorrow as tears continued to stream down her face but she failed to show any true emotion. "don't cry, suni baby. why are you crying?"

felix had shoved the boy away from suni before the situation became worse. "leave her alone, man. you. had. your. chance. and you seem to have thrown away the opportunity terribly. you only had this one chance. it's over now."

"i'm not crying because of you; you're not worth it. i'm crying because my delusion of who you were was shattered by the truth of who you are," suni said, looking straight into the boy's eyes. "i'm letting you go. i never want to see you in my dreams, in my thoughts, or in my sight ever again. goodbye forever."

suni dismissed herself, telling her friends that she needed to be alone for awhile. she ran to the rooftop which was filled with old desks and chairs and disgusting moldy library books.

she sat in the corner, emotionless. no tears. no smiles. she didn't regret what she said, she just needed to recollect herself and her thoughts. suddenly, a paper airplane collided with her head, landing into her lap.

she unfolded the paper airplane and read the message.

'sadness will fly away on the wings of time.'

she felt relief just reading the note and was about to look for who gave it to her, but another paper airplane collided with her head. this one read:

'you were brave enough to say goodbye, so life is to reward you a new hello.'

she chuckled. from behind a pile of desks she hears, "i win!"

hyunjin pops out from behind the desks and smiles with paper airplanes in his hands. "i got you to laugh!"

"thanks, hyunjin. you really didn't have to," suni says, taking a seat closer to hyunjin and patting the space beside her, telling him to sit next to her.

"yeah, to be honest, your friends told me to just leave you alone so you can think it through, but i couldn't get myself to focus in class knowing that you could be crying all alone somewhere," hyunjin says, looking at the girl's puffy eyes. "you look like a mess."

"i know," is all the girl could get out.

"you know... before i die, i want to be somebody's favorite hiding place, the place they can put everything they know they need to survive, every secret, every solitude, every nervous prayer and be absolutely certain i will keep it safe. i will keep it safe," hyunjin rambled on, looking out at the cloud-filled sky. "and i know you don't have that trust right now."

suni curiously listened intently to the boy. "that's why i, hwang hyunjin, am making it my life goal to regain your trust and make you the happiest girl alive."